Icelandic
THIS ARTICLE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS Icelandic Icelandic (íslenska) is the language spoken in Iceland by 330 thousand people (and by a few thousands in Denmark, USA and Canada (mainly Manitoba)) and it belongs to the Northern Germanic language family. It is an insular language, meaning it does not belong to the continental Scandinavian languages group (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) meaning it remained Isolated for many centuries and, thus, retained many features of Old Norse that disappeared from the continental Scandinavian languages throughout the centuries. Because Icelandic is such a small language, the resources to learn it are very limited. If one wants to learn it, it is advised to learn another Scandinavian language (preferably Norwegian Nynorsk) before transitioning to Icelandic. Icelandic grammar is much more complicated than that of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish but the catch is that most grammar features that exist in Icelandic also exist in the continental languages in a more simplified manner. Grammar Overview Phonology/Grammar/Vocabulary # Phonology Icelandic phonology can be a bit difficult depending on your first language. It is mostly phonetic and letters like þ and ð can pose difficulties. Unlike the continental Scandinavian languages, Icelandic has no tones and doesn't have dialects. # Grammar Icelandic Grammar is very irregular. # Vocabulary Icelandic vocabulary is very pure. It has very few loanwords from Latin, Germanic/Low German, Greek or French. Verbs Verb conjugation in Icelandic is mostly unpredictable and random. Verbs are divided in 4 groups: '-ar', '-ir' and '-ur' verbs (the fourth group being for the ones that don't fall in the previous three ones). All verbs (except for a handful of exceptions) in their infinitive forms end in '-a', thus it's impossible to tell just by looking at the verb's infinitive form if it is a '-ar', '-ir' or '-ur' verb. A '-ar' verb (like að tala = to speak) is a verb that when conjugated in the singular third person present tense (he speaks) takes the ending '-ar'. So að tala > to speak > hann tal'ar' > he speaks. There are many verbs that fall in this category. Examples are að nota (to use), að borða (to eat), að kasta (to throw) and að trufla (to bother). A '-ir' verb (like að reyna= to try) is a verb that when conjugated in the singular third person present tense (he tries) takes the ending '-ir'. So að reyna > to try > hann reyn'ir' > he tries. There are many verbs that fall in this category. Examples are að senda (to send), að samþykkja (to consent), að heimsækja (to visit) and að heyra (to bother). '-Ar' and '-ir' verbs behave fairly regularly and, once you identify they are '-ar'/'''-ir''' verbs, the conjugation of the present and past tense become pretty predictable. A '-ur' verb (like að verða = to become) is a verb that when conjugated in the singular third person present tense (he becomes) takes the ending '-ur'. So að verða > to become > hann verð'ur' > he becomes. There are many verbs that fall in this category. Examples are að selja (to sell), að velja (to choose), að skjóta (to shoot) and að aka (to drive). '-Ur' verbs are the most unpredictable ones. They come with vowel shifts and sometimes the past tense bears little to no resemblance to the present tense. Example: að verða > to become > við verðum > we become > við urðum > we became The fourth group is the exception group. Verbs like að vera, að sjá, að bera and að muna (there are others) have all their own conjugation patterns and the only way is to memorize them. Icelandic verbs also come with a thing called mediopassive voice (miðmynd) which exists in all transitive verbs. It has five uses and is characterized by the ending '-st': # Reflexivity—The middle voice form of a verb may be used in lieu of a reflexive pronoun, for example: Þór klæðir sig ⇒ Þór klæðist (‘Þór gets dressed’) # Reciprocity—Here the middle voice is used to mean ‘each other’, for example: Þór talar við Stefán og Stefán talar við Þór ⇒ Þór og Stefán talast við (‘Þór and Stefán talk to each other’) # An alternative meaning—As previously mentioned, some middle voice verbs carry different meanings than their counterparts. Examples include koma (‘to come’) becoming komast (‘to get there’) and gera (‘to do’) becoming gerast (‘to happen’) # The passive—In certain situations, the middle voice may express an idea for which English would use the passive. For example, the phrase, Bíllinn sést ekki, translates as ‘The car cannot be seen’. Most often the middle voice is used in this context when there is no direct reference to any grammatical person. # In reported speech—When the subject of reported speech is the same of that reporting, the middle voice may be used. For example, Hann sagðist ekki lesa bókina, translates to, 'He said (that) he didn't read the book'. Note three special features of this construction: 1) the use of the infinitive 'lesa' in the subordinate clause; 2) the placement of 'ekki'; and 3) the lack of the complementizer 'að', corresponding to English 'that'. Nouns Nouns in Icelandic inflect in four cases (Nominative (nafnfall), Accusative (þolfall), Dative (þágufall) and Genitive (eignarfall)) and can be either masculine, feminine or neuter gendered. There are a few patterns you can learn and keep in mind in order to be able to guess the gender of a noun but don't count on them 100%. Neuter Nouns: Inflection of neuter nouns in Icelandic is fairly regular and predictable. The vast majority of neuter nouns are declined like land. Feminine Nouns: Inflection of feminine nouns in Icelandic is more complicated. If the noun ends in an '-a', it declines like stelpa , if it ends in a consonant, it generally declines like frétt (though there are nouns in which the plural form '-ir' becomes '-ar' like in kinn) and if it ends in '-un', it declines like hugsun. Masculine nouns: These are a nightmare. Can be very random. They have many declension patterns. Some are hundur, Íslendingur, staður, þráður, meðlimur, brandari, botn and others. Adjectives Unlike verbs and nouns, Icelandic adjectives are mostly regular. How to learn Icelandic Naturally, the most effective way to learn Icelandic is to study it in Iceland. However, that is often not possible so you're left with what you can make do on the Internet. Here's what you can do: # Learn written Norwegian, Swedish or Danish (preferably Norwegian Nynosk). You should NOT learn how to speak these languages because Icelandic pronunciation is very different. You have to learn how to read and write one of these languages and then you'll be able transition more painlessly to Icelandic. The grammar of these languages is fairly simple (especially if you speak German or Dutch) and shouldn't take more than 3 months of study to get a good grasp of grammar and functional vocabulary. # Once you have a learned the grammar of one of these languages you can begin getting acquainted with the irregularities of Icelandic. Go here, click Exercises and spend a few days identifying and memorizing patterns. Having autism will help you in this process. # Once the patterns for nouns, verbs and adjectives are down, you should start working on your vocabulary and general grammar. This is the trickish part. As it was said above, the grammar of the continental Scandinavian languages are pretty much simplified versions of that of Icelandic grammar. You'll have to learn where these differences lie and how different they are. Having an Icelandic friend with which to chat will greatly help you. There isn't icelandic reading material for beginners on the internet so you're left with your own resourcefulness and creativity. Links BÍN is by far the website you're going to use the most. It can decline all verbs and adjectives and can conjugate any verb. Just type a word and fiddle with it. No English-language version. ISLEX is a great Icelandic dictionary. You look for a word and it translates its meaning to Danish, Swedish, Norwegian BM/NN, Faroese and, in some cases, even Finnish. Icelandic Subtitles for Movies change the filter to Icelandic that is located below the search field. Wiktionary can be useful for cheking translation, conjugations and declensions for nouns and adjectives. Íslenzska for memorizing the patterns. Icelandic Online is a good place for absolute beginners. Wordreference Forums for when you have questions about the language.